icmpc18 International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition

Sunday, 27 de April de 2025

International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition - icmpc2025

The 18th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition, which will be held in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, in a hybrid format, from 21 to 25 July 2025

The 18th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition aims to bring together researchers, scholars, and music professionals from diverse cultural backgrounds to collaborate, share insights, and inspire innovative approaches to studying music perception and cognition within an ever-evolving technological and transcultural landscape.  


For the first time in Brazil and in the Global South, the conference will be hosted in São Paulo, a city renowned for its multicultural vibrancy and rich musical diversity. 


The event will be jointly organized with the 17th International Conference of the Brazilian Association of Cognition and Musical Arts (SIMCAM 17 | XVII Simpósio de Cognição e Artes Musicais). 

International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition
 International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition

Musical Perception and Cognition: An Integrative Perspective Between Metabolism, Interoception, and the Damasian Mind

This article explores musical perception and cognition from an integrative neurobiological perspective, connecting recent discoveries with concepts such as metabolism, homeostasis, interoception, and the Damasian mind. We propose that music acts as a dynamic modulator of cognition and autonomic regulation, activating neural systems responsible for pleasure, memory, emotion, and identity. Based on recent evidence from cognitive neuroscience, we suggest that musical experience can be understood as a form of homeostatic and metacognitive signaling.

1. Introduction
Music is a universal phenomenon, present in all human cultures. More than just an art form, it is also a form of intersubjective communication that activates complex brain regions and participates in the regulation of bodily states. Neuroscience studies show that listening to and producing music involves distributed networks of auditory, motor, affective, and cognitive processing (Zatorre et al., 2007; Koelsch, 2014).

2. Neurobiological Foundations of Musical Perception
Musical perception involves the primary and secondary auditory cortex, the prefrontal cortex, the cerebellum, and structures of the limbic system such as the amygdala and nucleus accumbens (Salimpoor et al., 2011). Dopamine release in the ventral striatum is associated with musical pleasure, especially during moments of melodic anticipation (Menon & Levitin, 2005).

3. Music and Autonomic Homeostasis
Music has been used as a tool for autonomic regulation. Studies on heart rate variability (HRV) show that harmonic sounds increase vagal tone and reduce stress markers (Thoma et al., 2013). Additionally, respiration and brain rhythms synchronize with musical beats in relaxation contexts (Bernardi et al., 2006).

4. Interoception, Feelings, and Musical Perception
Interoception, mediated by the anterior insula and cingulate cortex, is essential for the construction of feelings (Craig, 2009). Music, by affecting heartbeat, respiration, and bodily vibrations, can directly alter interoceptive states. This allows us to understand musical feelings as forms of "graded propagated cortical depression," i.e., slow and deep modulations of cortical tone.

5. Damasian Mind and Musical Meaning
Antonio Damasio proposes that the mind emerges from the interaction between interoception and bodily proprioception (Damasio, 2010). Music, by acting directly on these systems, becomes a tool for modulating consciousness and identity. More than merely stimulating emotions, it reconstructs self-maps and personal narratives.

6. Analogies with Cellular Metabolism
Just as cellular metabolism responds to biochemical signals to maintain homeostasis, the nervous system responds to "musical signals" to adjust affective and cognitive states. Music, in this context, functions as a "symbolic neuromodulator," regulating both emotional and sensory systems in a manner analogous to cytokines in the immune system.

7. Final Considerations
Musical perception is a profound bodily and intersubjective experience. Connecting sensory, affective, and cognitive systems, music reveals itself as an ancestral tool for metabolic and subjective regulation. Understanding it as an integrative phenomenon between body, mind, and environment can open new therapeutic, educational, and existential possibilities.

References

The content published here is the exclusive responsibility of the authors.

Autor:

Jackson Cionek










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